Pasadena City College lecture from adult film star will be restricted to professor's classroom

PASADENA - The public portion of a lecture by award-winning adult film star James Deen has been canceled after college administrators allegedly learned of "hundreds of protesters" planning to march on the event.

Professor Hugo Schwyzer invited Deen - a PCC alumnus - to speak on campus as part of his Humanities 3 "Navigating Pornography" class and opened the event up to the public because he thought it would be of interest.

However, following press coverage of the event, school administrators called Schwyzer and requested a meeting on Tuesday.

Schwyzer said he met with PCC Vice President Robert Bell and the college's legal counsel Gail Cooper, who told him the event posed public safety concerns and was not properly requested through the college facilities department, according to Schwyzer.

Schwyzer said Deen will still speak, but only in his classroom and the event will be closed to the press and the public.

"Gail Cooper said to me there are 100 protesters ready to march over form Caltech right now, which struck me as odd," Schwyzer said. "She said she and the board had received many complaints from the community."

PCC issued a press release at 4 p.m. Tuesday saying that Schwyzer did not obtain a facilities use permit required for public events on campus, so he and administrators "came to an agreement" to move the lecture to Schwyzer's classroom.

Bell offered to allow Schwyzer to postpone the event, but Schwyzer said Deen is not available on another date, according to the press release.

“We support the instructor’s academic freedom within the classroom,” Bell said. “The college’s concern is to schedule all public events according to procedures so we can insure public safety and security.”

Bell also denied that any class titled "Navigating Pornography" exists at the college. The class Schwyzer teaches is officially called "Humanities 3" but Schwyzer said the subject matter is open to "whatever the professor wants to teach."

Schwyzer, who stressed that the university's legal counsel told him he could not speak as a college employee, said he was "disappointed" by the administration's decision.

"James Deen speaks at lots of colleges. Porn on campus is a shocking issue in Pasadena, which still has a very conservative underbelly, but this is not an unusual event," he said. "The fact is by canceling the public nature of the event at such a late date, they guarantee it becomes a much bigger news story because it does look like censorship."

Schwyzer said he is not required to submit a syllabus for his class to the college administration and the college cannot prohibit him from bringing speakers into his classroom.

Schwyzer has faced his share of controversy in the past after admitting to drug and alcohol abuse during the first five years he taught at PCC, during which time he also admitted to having sexual relationships with many of his students. He has also received much criticism from feminist groups for his actions, especially the attempted murder suicide of his ex-girlfriend while high on alcohol and pills.

Student Lauren Duckworth, who said she has known Schwyzer for years outside of PCC, said she thinks the college's decision may go back to these controversies. But she said, that only makes the "Navigating Pornography" class and Deen's campus visit that much more important.

"I think this whole controversy just goes to show why we need to talk about this, why we need to study this in college," Duckworth said, "because there is so much fear and stigma and shame attached to pornography in our culture and this conflict goes to show how intense that fear can be."